The Florida Senate

Job search, referral, and placement assistance.

Career counseling and educational planning.

Consumer reports on service providers.

Recruitment and eligibility determination.

Support services, including child care and transportation assistance to gain employment.

Employability skills training.

Adult education and basic skills training.

Technical training leading to a certification and degree.

Claim filing for unemployment compensation services.

Temporary income, health, nutritional, and housing assistance.

Other appropriate and available workforce development services.

Subject to a process designed by Workforce Florida, Inc., and in compliance with Pub. L. No. 105-220, regional workforce boards shall designate one-stop delivery system operators.

A regional workforce board may designate as its one-stop delivery system operator any public or private entity that is eligible to provide services under any state or federal workforce program that is a mandatory or discretionary partner in the region’s one-stop delivery system if approved by Workforce Florida, Inc., upon a showing by the regional workforce board that a fair and competitive process was used in the selection. As a condition of authorizing a regional workforce board to designate such an entity as its one-stop delivery system operator, Workforce Florida, Inc., must require the regional workforce board to demonstrate that safeguards are in place to ensure that the one-stop delivery system operator will not exercise an unfair competitive advantage or unfairly refer or direct customers of the one-stop delivery system to services provided by that one-stop delivery system operator. A regional workforce board may retain its current One-Stop Career Center operator without further procurement action where the board has established a One-Stop Career Center that has complied with federal and state law.

Unless otherwise required by federal law, at least 90 percent of the Wagner-Peyser funding must go into direct customer service costs.

Employment services must be provided through the one-stop delivery system, under the guidance of one-stop delivery system operators. One-stop delivery system operators shall have overall authority for directing the staff of the workforce system. Personnel matters shall remain under the ultimate authority of the Agency for Workforce Innovation. However, the one-stop delivery system operator shall submit to the agency information concerning the job performance of agency employees who deliver employment services. The agency shall consider any such information submitted by the one-stop delivery system operator in conducting performance appraisals of the employees.

The agency shall retain fiscal responsibility and accountability for the administration of funds allocated to the state under the Wagner-Peyser Act. An agency employee who is providing services authorized under the Wagner-Peyser Act shall be paid using Wagner-Peyser Act funds.

To the extent possible, core services, as defined by Pub. L. No. 105-220, shall be provided electronically, using existing systems. These electronic systems shall be linked and integrated into a comprehensive service system to simplify access to core services by:

To expand electronic capabilities, Workforce Florida, Inc., working with regional workforce boards, shall develop a centralized help center to assist regional workforce boards in fulfilling core services, minimizing the need for fixed-site one-stop delivery system centers.

To the extent feasible, core services shall be accessible through the Internet. Through this technology, core services shall be made available at public libraries, public and private educational institutions, community centers, kiosks, neighborhood facilities, and satellite one-stop delivery system sites. Each regional workforce board’s web page shall serve as a portal for contacting potential employees by integrating the placement efforts of universities and private companies, including staffing services firms, into the existing one-stop delivery system.

Individual Training Accounts must be expended on programs that prepare people to enter high-wage occupations identified by the Workforce Estimating Conference created by s. 216.136, and on other programs as approved by Workforce Florida, Inc.

For each approved training program, regional workforce boards, in consultation with training providers, shall establish a fair-market purchase price to be paid through an Individual Training Account. The purchase price must be based on prevailing costs and reflect local economic factors, program complexity, and program benefits, including time to beginning of training and time to completion. The price shall ensure the fair participation of public and nonpublic postsecondary educational institutions as authorized service providers and shall prohibit the use of unlawful remuneration to the student in return for attending an institution. Unlawful remuneration does not include student financial assistance programs.

Workforce Florida, Inc., shall periodically review Individual Training Account pricing schedules developed by regional workforce boards and present findings and recommendations for process improvement to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

To the maximum extent possible, training providers shall use funding sources other than the funding provided under Pub. L. No. 105-220. Workforce Florida, Inc., shall develop a system to encourage the leveraging of appropriated resources for the workforce system and shall report on such efforts as part of the required annual report.

Training services provided through Individual Training Accounts must be performance-based, with successful job placement triggering full payment.

The accountability measures to be used in documenting competencies acquired by the participant during training shall be literacy completion points and occupational completion points. Literacy completion points refers to the academic or workforce readiness competencies that qualify a person for further basic education, career education, or for employment. Occupational completion points refers to the career competencies that qualify a person to enter an occupation that is linked to a career program.

Workforce Florida, Inc., working with the Agency for Workforce Innovation, shall coordinate among the agencies a plan for a One-Stop Electronic Network made up of one-stop delivery system centers and other partner agencies that are operated by authorized public or private for-profit or not-for-profit agents. The plan shall identify resources within existing revenues to establish and support this electronic network for service delivery that includes Government Services Direct. If necessary, the plan shall identify additional funding needed to achieve the provisions of this subsection.

The network shall assure that a uniform method is used to determine eligibility for and management of services provided by agencies that conduct workforce development activities. The Department of Management Services shall develop strategies to allow access to the databases and information management systems of the following systems in order to link information in those databases with the one-stop delivery system:

A participant in an adult or youth work experience activity administered under this chapter shall be deemed an employee of the state for purposes of workers’ compensation coverage. In determining the average weekly wage, all remuneration received from the employer shall be considered a gratuity, and the participant shall not be entitled to any benefits otherwise payable under s. 440.15, regardless of whether the participant may be receiving wages and remuneration from other employment with another employer and regardless of his or her future wage-earning capacity.

This subsection expires July 1, 2011.